The Role of the President and USTR in U.S. Trade Policy

Abstract

Over the last 60 years, the role of the President in U.S. trade policy has become more important as the U.S. has assumed greater responsibility and leadership in the multilateral trading system. Several major legislative initiatives during this period have managed specifically to shape the present role of the President and USTR in U.S. trade policy. The first initiative took place in 1934 when Congress passed the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act (proposed by Secretary of State Cordell Hull) which for the first time authorized the President-with certain limitations-to negotiate U.S. trade policy on abilateral basis. One of the main arguments made in 1934 in favor of the act was that it would increase jobs and aid industry in the United States through the increase in exports. In essence, the RTA was a desperate attempt by the United States to put an end to its policy of isolationism and lead the world away from the destructive protectionist tendencies of the period-inherent in such measures as the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff-which served only to hamper economic growth and exacerbate the harmful effects of the Great Depression.